'Jordan Rules' Shows Michael As A Mortal

THE SPORTS COLUMN

December 3, 1991|By Brian Schmitz of The Sentinel Staff

I just read The Jordan Rules, and in it Michael Jordan brutally berates teammates, tries running the Chicago Bulls franchise between dunks, drives 70 in 35 mph zones and unabashedly hogs the basketball.

Michael also is portrayed to be, at times, insensitive and petty.

He is even touchy about his hair loss (which is why he shaves his head).

Thank goodness.

For a while there we were all beginning to believe that the guy on the Wheaties box can walk on water as well as air.

Author Sam Smith shows you the other side of Jordan without malice, the side that is not slickly commercialized or dramatically canonized according to hang time.

Smith's book doesn't make Jordan out to be a bad guy or a tyrant. It simply makes him out to be mortal.

It's almost a welcome relief, this humanization of Michael, and it should be to Jordan, too. Playing the part of Peter Pan all the time is tough and tricky, with or without guy wires.

He has instead dismissed Smith - who covered the Bulls for the Chicago Tribune - as an opportunist. It's a role that Jordan, of course, perfected as one of sport's leading capitalists. Jordan, it should be pointed out, did not cooperate on the book with Smith, who says his objective was to monitor the pulse of a team's championship season.

If all Smith wanted to do was make some quick bucks off Jordan, he not only waited too long (it's his first book), but spent entirely too much time writing about people not named Michael Jordan.

Smith gives you an intriguing behind-the-scenes account of a team that wins in spite of itself. Players bickering about statistics and salaries and - mostly - about Jordan. There's also insight into how they tamper with the baskets in Detroit and why the basketballs in Miami were found to be lighter than normal. Great inside stuff for a basketball junkie.

Certainly, Jordan sells the book. Could you chronicle the Rolling Stones without focusing on Mick Jagger?

The fact that Jordan and his ability transcended the team concept is a running theme from hardwood to hardback.

Smith begins Chicago's title run in the spring of '90, with Jordan griping to an ''acquaintance'' about the lack of commitment and talent on the Bulls. Fiercely competitive, Jordan routinely grows impatient because other players can't play the way he does, meaning he's on edge a lot.

He had no time for center Will Perdue of Merritt Island, the slow-footed former Vanderbilt star. Jordan referred to him as Will ''Vanderbilt.'' ''He doesn't deserve to be named after a Big Ten school,'' Jordan said.

It's clear that the Bulls revere and resent Jordan. The preferential treatment (teammates call it ''The Jordan Rules'') he receives wears on them. Jordan could call in sick when others couldn't or be late for the bus or receive extra ticket allotments.

Teammates privately called him ''The General'' because he was often in command more than coach Phil Jackson. They complain how hard it is to play with Jordan, how he turns them into spectators. There was this exchange between Jordan and forward Horace Grant:

What Magic fans should find interesting is that the player Jordan despised most was Reggie Theus. Theus played for Orlando in the franchise's inaugural year before being traded to New Jersey. ''I hate his game,'' Jordan said. ''He's so selfish, always berating the referees and yelling out there.''

Smith writes, ''None of the reasons made sense. The story around the Bulls, though, was that Theus had briefly dated Jordan's wife, Juanita, before Jordan met her.''

Smith also paints Jordan as a man loyal to his friends, a devoted family man and ideal role model. It's a fair account that gives us a better feel for Michael Jordan outside the station breaks, particularly a scene in which Jordan is visiting a dying little girl brought to him before a game. It's her last wish. They laugh and cry together.

''How do they expect me to play basketball now?'' Michael Jordan said.